


Valentine's Day Movie Review: Candyman (1992)

by Ggunsailor



Category: Candyman (1992)
Genre: Reviews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:55:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22748932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ggunsailor/pseuds/Ggunsailor
Summary: My review for Candyman.
Relationships: Candyman | Daniel Robitaille/Helen Lyle
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8





	Valentine's Day Movie Review: Candyman (1992)

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to get this up yesterday but...ah well.

[Candyman](https://youtu.be/AFjb447gMIM)

( _Began yesterday on 2/14/20)_

Greetings, everyone. I thought for Valentine’s Day today I’d do something a little different: a movie review.

But I’m not reviewing a romantic comedy/film. Oh, no, we’re doing something different. We’re actually going to review a horror film. On today’s agenda we’ll be looking at Bernard Rose’s 1992 Gothic slasher _Candyman._ Join me, won’t you?

( _Ps. Spoilers abounding. Read at your own risk!)_

* * *

Our film begins with an urban legend (and Ted Raimi for some reason).

[Watch here.](https://youtu.be/2u1cH1mbJYk)

Our heroine is Helen Lyle played by the gorgeous and talented Virginia Madsen. She and her friend Bernadette are graduate students collecting stories for a thesis about urban legends and myths. And Candyman keeps popping up in the course of their research, especially when they’re connecting him to a series of gruesome murders in a dangerous neighborhood. They travel to the neighborhood, Cabrini Green, and find that the residents are scared of “Candyman”; one woman, Anne-Marie is worried that he’ll come and steal her six month old son Anthony.

Later on at dinner with her husband Trevor (who is a class A son of a bitch) and the head of her department, we find out the sad story of how Candyman came to be.

Candyman was the son of a wealthy slave who had gotten rich by making an automatic process for making shoes. The son was able to go to the best schools and became a well-to-do gentleman with a talent for painting (we later find out in a sequel that his name is Daniel). He was commissioned by a rich man to paint a portrait of his daughter. The two of them fell in love and she became pregnant. Naturally the father was furious and decided to exact revenge on the painter.

He hired a lynch mob to chase down Daniel. They caught him, cut off his right hand and replaced it with a rusty hook. Then they stripped him naked, smashed open an nearby beehive and stole the honey from it. They smeared the honey on his body and watched as the hungry and angry bees stung Daniel to death. They burned his body and scattered the ashes over what would become the Chicago neighborhood of Cabrini Green. Now the story goes that if you repeat his name five times in front of a mirror (like Bloody Mary) he’ll appear after the fifth time and gut you with his rusty hook. Yikes…

Naturally Helen wants to find out more, even going so far as to check out the murder scene of a victim. When she’s accosted by the leader of a gang using the name and reputation of Candyman to hold control, she identifies him, he’s arrested and that’s the end of it, right?

Well, no. It isn’t. Not by a long shot.

In a parking garage, Helen is accosted by the _real_ Candyman. And he’s pissed off that Helen has been telling his “congregation” that he isn’t real. So our monster decides to exact his own revenge on Helen. She blacks out…

Only to wake up in a bathroom covered in blood with a dead dog nearby and the screams of Anne-Marie. Anthony is gone.

Helen is accused of the kidnapping (and possible murder of the dog) and arrested. She can’t tell anyone where the baby is because she says she “doesn’t know” where he is.

But she and we the audience know who’s got him: Candyman, of course.

He attacks Helen in her apartment and commands her to join him as his victim. And then Bernadette unfortunately shows up only to end up on the business end of Candyman’s hook.

Poor Helen is accused of _her_ murder and sentenced to an asylum. Candyman hovers over her bed and mocks her before the staff drugs her.

She’s knocked out for a month before she wakes up. In a session with the psychiatrist trying to help her, she says “Candyman” five times while looking into a mirror in his office (because that’s how you summon him, if you recall). You can probably guess what happens next.

[And it’s pretty gruesome.](https://youtu.be/SlVcg0pTzQ4)

After this unsettling event, Candyman taunts her with saying that if she comes to him, he’ll let her go and return Anthony to his mother; he then makes a dramatic exit by flying backward out a window.

Helen escapes and heads back to her apartment to take solace in her husband…only to find that he’s been cheating on her with one of his students (in previous moments throughout we’re given blatant hints he’s unfaithful). She suddenly taunts him herself and then leaves to head back to Cabrini Green.

She finds Anthony thankfully unharmed but is attacked once again by Candyman. He tells her that if she dies with him she’ll become a legend herself. He gives her a kiss full of bees and she passes out again.

Waking up, she hears Anthony crying in the middle of a huge pile of material gathered for a bonfire. She goes to rescue him, attracting the attention of a group of residents thinking Candyman is in there. So they do the most logical thing…and set the pile on fire.

In what could be one of the most chilling climaxes I’ve ever seen in a horror movie, Helen is restrained by Candyman as the flames rise. But she stabs him thru the chest with a flaming stick, grabs Anthony and crawls out with her hair and clothes on fire. Candyman bursts into fire, and after handing Anthony back to Anne-Marie Helen dies of her injuries.

At her funeral, the Cabrini Green residents appear and drop Candyman’s rusty hook into her open grave.

The movie ends with a twist you don’t see coming but I’ll mention that near the end.

* * *

How did this movie come about? It came about because of a short story written by Clive Barker, the man responsible for the Hellraiser series as well as being a very talented artist, filmmaker and author. The original story is called “The Forbidden” and is set in Liverpool. It caught the attention of TriStar Films who asked for the film rights. Barker agreed as long as he was the executive producer.

They gave the film to Bernard Rose who changed the setting of the story from England to Chicago and in what was considered at the time the most dangerous neighborhood in America.

But that’s enough about how the film came about. Let’s talk about what I like and dislike.

* * *

**What I like about the film**

1\. **The title character**

In this film, the monster is much different from the slashers that had been introduced up to this point such as Jason, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers. Rather, this fellow is a gentleman. I mean, look at what happens when he shows up.

[Candyman meets Helen](https://youtu.be/GOcPVmS2-_4)

Tell me that you don’t get the chills the minute he says “ _Helen._ “

Not only that, Tony Todd is absolutely brilliant. The man has his acting roots in Shakespeare and it certainly shows. And to many, including myself, Tony Todd _is_ Candyman.

**2\. The music**

The score for the film is written by Phillip Glass, known for films such as _The Hours_. It’s absolutely a lush and gorgeous score, unlike any for a horror movie; perhaps a score that comes close is his re-scoring of _Dracula._

The best part of it has to be the moments between Helen and Daniel. Here is a perfect example.

<https://youtu.be/68UrTOUJqtE>

**3\. The bees**

Okay, that title may make you pause and say “huh?”, but trust me.

In most horror films, the what I like to call “the creature symbol” is usually a bird like a crow, or a wolf or some other animal. But bees are what no one expects in a horror movie.

The bees are part of Candyman as much as his hook and his coat. After all, that was how he died (other than the horrific blood loss from getting his hand sawed off). They appear in the beginning of the film in a huge swarm against the skyline of Chicago. I wouldn’t be surprised if people got scared of bees _after_ they saw this movie.

[Those are actually newborn bees, and Tony Todd had to have a dental dam in the back of his mouth so the bees wouldn’t go down his throat](https://youtu.be/Y90loATH9tE)

* * *

**What I don’t like about the film**

**1\. Candyman doesn’t show up until a good forty-minutes into the film.**

I know that Bernard Rose wanted to build up the tension for when the real monster comes in, but…come on, we want to see the bad guy!

**2\. The treatment of Helen in the police station**

I get that she’s a suspect in a murder and she’s covered in blood too. But would the policewoman helping her have been a little more sympathetic?

* * *

**Final thoughts**

Would I watch this again? Oh, hell yes. It’s an amazing film. Now I’ve been told I should avoid the sequels at all if possible. Don’t worry, I plan to.

By the way, if some of you are wondering if this will fall under the “is it going to get a reboot” question, then the answer is…YES.

Jordan Peele, one of the current maestros of horror, is working on a reboot film. And Tony Todd is set to return to the role that made him an icon. And this is one person who will gladly go and see it!

By the way, remember the film ending in a different way that I told you about?

[I’ll let it speak for itself. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone](https://youtu.be/2RRtmSY5Hmg)

**Author's Note:**

> Have you seen Candyman? If you have, what are your thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments or drop me a line via social media.


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